Previously on La Plata: Mexico, Hugo Ojeda trusted in youth.
Intro
There’s a number of loose ends to tie up in today’s blog. Not only is it the end of the 2026/27 Liga MX campaign, it’s also the last ‘save update’ that I’ll be doing for FM20. In today’s post I not only share my mood with Football Manager 2020 throughout this year’s cycle, but I also throw in a few #GIFGoals and conclude with some CreativeFM. I hope you enjoy all, or some parts, of today’s post…
Season 2026/27
Liga MX - Whilst taking a step back from this particular MX Stage, keeping Dorados de Sinaloa in Liga MX was always the aim. We’ve managed to do it on two separate occasions now and thus achieving the Board’s ambition to establish Dorados as a Liga MX team. However, I can’t help feeling disappointed at the sheer absurdity of our defence this year. We only kept one clean sheet in 21 games (all comps). As mentioned last time out on the blog, I trusted in youth and kept signings down to a minimum, maybe we were always likely to have a dip before we got better?
Offensively we were strong though, we ranked 4th in the league and outscored a number of big teams. We saw Carlo Limón become a 20-goal-a-season Striker and also bettered Conrado Verón’s return, who directly contributed towards 17 goals (10 goals and 7 assists all comps). Entertainment was certainly provided to the Estadio Banorte faithful and the Board equally satisfied with our Attacking Football club vision. B- is Hugo Ojeda’s final performance rating for the season and 15th is our Closing Stage finish:
A famous 4-3 win Vs Club América was almost on the cards until the Referee forgot to blow his whistle, ensuring América scored on 90+7.
Dorados’ next manager will have a slightly easier task than Hugo Ojeda, in that the club enter their third consecutive year of Liga MX with an average of 1.08 points over the three years:
Copa MX - Not much to say here. We had a great first leg draw away at Deportivo Toluca in the Last 16…only to choke in the home leg…totally out of character seeing as that we thumped them 5-1 later on in the season at home. No trophies for Hugo Ojeda in FM20.
The Curious Case Of Murciélagos FC Part II - Fellow Venezuelan and former Assistant Manager to Hugo Ojeda, Guillermo Ramírez, has done a stellar job at Sinaloa’s 2nd best team since taking over. But he incredibly falls at the final hurdle for the second year running since taking over from Ojeda. An amazing nine match winning run propelled Murciélagos FC into the Ascenso MX Playoff Final…who were cruelly stopped in their tracks by Potros UAEM. I feel for some of my virtual ex-players, particularly Enzo Cabrera who had his best season with 12 goals and 7 assists across the 2026/27 Ascenso MX campaigns. Seeing Murciélagos FC’s fortunes has been a great side-story in this save, 10/10 for narrative building:
My Mood with Football Manager 2020
A few months ago I told those in my FM Slack channel that I would put together a graph which tracked my mood with Football Manager 2020. Nobody probably remembers, but here I am with a graph to show my personal ups-and-downs with FM20:
September & October - at this point in time Football Manager 2020 was not yet released, but the hype was certainly building. I was in the process of finalising my South American guides, which have been awesome to put together, and I was also carefully in the process of framing the start of my FM20 adventure with Bastardo & Peñarol. I was optimistic and 5 on the scale of FMG happiness.
Release Day - For ****’s sake. My mood reached a record low of -8 on FM20 release date. I mean, it was a disaster. Most of the young players in my opening save’s Universe had Determination 1. To quote one of my early FM20 blog posts:
Football Manager 2020’s release day was a weird one. I didn’t expect to undertake so many house chores on my precious single day of annual leave without the wife and kids. This day is annually dedicated to Football Manager and only Football Manager. Yet I dusted [and then vacuumed] the house, ran the washing machine twice, made a fresh Arrabbiata dish [with crouton starter] and moisturised my face.
Still, my mood never reached -10. I was really pleased with my save introduction(s) and a release day patch from Sports Interactive at least rescued the evening.
November was also a big month content-wise for me due to the release of the inaugural edition of Latte Quarterly, a quarterly Football Manager publication. I’m really happy with how it’s been received and humbled to be one of its four Editors (along with accordingtofm, FM Adventure and FM Samo). It’s not all about us though, if you want to submit content and be part of it…contact us: lattequarterly@gmail.com.
December to March - I personally feel that your relationship with Football Manager is largely dependent on how good it’s going in-game. If you’re losing a lot, then it’s probably not going to be enjoyable. But winning makes you love the game. This is what I did at Peñarol and Uruguay: 4 straight league titles and an International trophy with La Celeste. The Copa America Final Vs Brazil helped me reach a glorious high of 9, I loved FM20 and it’s one of two monumental highs with this year’s edition. With the second arriving a few months later…
April to August - It’s hard to write about 2020 and not mention the global pandemic. It changed a lot about the way we live, work and how we connect with others. For me, I had to take a little time away from Football Manager; I was lucky enough to carry on working from home, but I had also gained a secondary job of home-schooling two kids. I was exhausted by the evening time and therefore had many early nights without FM 😴
Strangely though, the lockdown months were a time where I could reflect and switch up my save. We once again pushed the creative boundaries within my Bastardo Universe (who doesn’t love a Stadium shoot-out?) and I took the plunge of creating a new in-game Manager within the same save universe. Not something I’ve seen done often enough and something I explore in an upcoming edition of Latte Quarterly 🔌
La Plata: Mexico was born and with it came the most volatile few months of FM Grasshopper mood swings. Lows in the Murciélagos FC days (-2) to an FM20 high when Dorados de Sinaloa gained promotion to Liga MX via the Mexican play-off system (9). It’s truly been a great save, but it now feels right to call it a day; seeing Dorados established in Liga MX and making Hugo Ojeda the King from Bastardo’s fall.
GIFGoals of FM20
I have managed four teams in Football Manager 2020: Peñarol, Uruguay, Murciélagos FC and Dorados. So, I thought I would share my favourite goal from each of those teams, as a tribute to #GIFGoals…the hashtag myself and Ondrej (FM Rensie) frequently used during the FM20 cycle.
Peñarol - Cristian Rodríguez Vs Danubio - 24 February 2019
One of the main attractions to taking on Peñarol was some of the golden oldies they had in their squad. What I like about the goal above is that it’s a combination of three of the main players from my 1st season back in 2019. It’s finished with such ruthlessness too by Cristian Rodríguez aka ‘Cebolla’, who I managed to get the best out of with 14 goals that year from left wing.
Uruguay - Edinson Cavani Vs Brazil - 12 July 2020
2020 Copa América: the tournament that never happened in real-life, not at the time of writing anyway (it’s been rescheduled for 2021). But my God, this was a fun tournament to capture for the blog, and the accompanying Twitch stream I did for the final Vs Brazil. Here’s Cavani putting Uruguay 1 nil up after 4 mins, from a delicious ball by Nahitan Nández. Managing El Matador was an FM20 pleasure, Cavani was simply undroppable even in his advancing years as we entered the 2022 World Cup. Mancrush.
Murciélagos FC - Enzo Cabrera Vs Loros de la Universidad de Colima - 02 March 2024
It wasn’t hard to sift through the goals at Murciélagos FC. The above goal remains memorable to me as it was one of the brief moments of magic from Enzo Cabrera - a player signed on a free from Newell's Old Boys. If you read the above update regarding Murciélagos FC, you’ll see that the young Argentine eventually came good in Mexico and I am pleased to see him scoring more often (just not with me).
Dorados de Sinaloa - Edwuin Cetré Vs CF Atlante - 24 May 2025
I have spoken about this goal at length before (read here). It’s still my favourite Dorados goal and recent memory from FM20, not only did I have my mate FM Samo watching it with me live in a call…it also confirmed our promotion to Liga MX. The goal scorer, Edwuin Cetré, also holds a place in my heart…I inherited him when I took over and he always put a shift in for us.
DORADOS DORADOS DORADOS.
King of The Fall
24-year-old Hugo Ojeda stood in front of the Sinaloa Cartel council, a collection of their elder statesmen and most trusted advisers. Patriarchs of the times before cocaine and politicians, men who had overseen the 5 year war with Baja California from the comfort of their mountain retreats. But their unease at being so deep within enemy territory was now showing. Hugo had brought them out here to the frontier of urban Tijuana to discuss the moves to end this war. The instructions laid out in Operational Isabella, by the now imprisoned Ángel Bastardo, had long run out…Hugo Ojeda was running unscripted and guided by instinct. But Sinaloa was on the cusp of winning this war, their enemies penned in. His mixture of Venezuelan and Uruguayan soldiers positioned themselves around the city perimeter, only the Sinaloans would make attacks within the city itself. Ojeda's active pacifism had been noted by the Sinaloa Cartel…they wanted answers and sight of a plan to finish the job.
Hugo's plan came with its risks. A single Sinaloan plated car driven to Tijuana central plaza would be tracked as soon as it entered the city sights. If not shot at right away, the occupants would be captured, blindfolded and taken to a secure site. If they were deemed important enough, they would survive the first beating. Only a Cartel Boss would be luckily enough to be interrogated…but Hugo Ojeda…? It had to be him that went.
On the face of it Hugo Ojeda was nothing to Tijuana. But to the Americans, and to one Russian in particular, he was like gold dust. He held the key to the fragments of Bastardo's criminal empire and the links to the Colombian white powder imports into Mexico. Get Hugo Ojeda across the border from Tijuana to San Diego and you would starve Sinaloa of its money in the short-term, and secure the backing of America and Mexico City for much longer. The heads of the Tijuana Cartel would love nothing more than to look upon the downtrodden Venezuelan who had made their lives hell these last 5 years. That's how Hugo stays alive after the first beating…enough time for him to call for backup. Enough time for Sinaola to rally behind him and remove the Tijuana Cartel once and for all.
This is how Operational Isabella was to be concluded and with that the small council nodded and adjourned. Hugo headed for the car…for every battle is won before it's ever fought…right?
To be continued, fairly soon…
FM Grasshopper